On the Road With Zelensky, Weathered, Weary and Fighting On
Account President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in Kramatorsk on Friday. “They need a lot of things,” he said of the soldiers. “And each day needs are changing.” Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, traveled east to visit frontline troops trying to stave off Russian attacks, and invited reporters for The New York Times to go with him. By Kim Barker Visuals by Brendan Hoffman Kim Barker, a veteran war correspondent, has been covering the conflict in Ukraine since 2024. Brendan Hoffman is a Kyiv-based photographer. The New York Times , March 9, 2026; see also President Volodymyr Zelensky, with tired eyes, deep worry lines and a beard flecked with gray, boarded a train on Thursday night in Kyiv to visit his troops in eastern Ukraine, where the fighting has been fiercest. It seemed a lonely journey. The U.S.-Israeli war launched against Iran almost a week earlier had pulled the world’s attention away from Ukraine’s bloody war with Russia and delayed the next round of American-...